Comfort Food

The men in my life love their meat and potatoes. 

My dad would take chicken and dumplins (yes, dumpliNs no g) and meatloaf with mashed potatoes over any other meal. 

With my Dad on Christmas 2012 

The key to my boyfriend's heart may be the perfect sheppard's pie. My best friend...well, he just likes to eat. 

My two best guys, boyfriend (on MY right) and best friend (on MY left)!

Maybe it's the German in all of us, but meat and potatoes form the basis of the food period for my family. 

While trying to please the carnivores in my family, I also have some vegetarian palates to satisfy. I definitely believe that cooking and sharing a meal is a way to show your love, so I wanted to serve a holiday meal that was like a hug on a plate for all my friends and family. AND let's be real, I am lazy and wanted a one-dish entree. AND it wouldn't be "typical CMS-approved food" without some health benefits. 

Meat, potatoes, vegetarian, one-dish, comforting, warm, healthy... geesh, you can't please everyone, right?

WRONG!

Hearty, healthy, Vegetable Pot Pie!

(Even my doubtful dad, loved it!) 

Vegetable Pot Pie

Hands on time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1.5 hours

What you need (this is a long list but man is it worth it, you FEEL the love and the time in this dish):

Filling:

• 1 bulb garlic
• Olive Oil
• 1 pound parsnips
• 1 pound turnips
• 1 pound butternut squash
• 1 pound carrots
• 1 pound celery
• 6 fingerling potatoes (to ease those meat and potato withdrawals)
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Fresh rosemary

Sauce:

• 2 medium yellow onions
• 1 T Olive Oil
• 1 T mustard
• 1 T thyme
• 3 T flour
• 1 cup of dry white cooking wine -- IMPORTANT make sure this is wine you would actually want to DRINK! For two reasons: 1) If you don't like the taste why cook with it?! 2) You are only using a cup, you've got more than half a bottle left to enjoy!
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 cups vegetable broth

Crust

• 3 cups Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 cup COLD shortening (vegetable shortening the recipe is vegetarian!)
• 1 stick COLD butter
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 1 egg yolk (for an egg wash later)

WOO! That's enough now.

Preheat your oven to 425 and peel and chop all of your veggies to roughly 1

inch cubes of equal size. Go ahead and chop up your onions for the gravy at this time too but set aside. Place your veggies on cookie sheets, spread in a thin layer and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, thyme and lay the fresh rosemary sprigs on top. Slice the top off your garlic bulb and cover with olive oil. Wrap it in tin foil and place it with the sheets of veggies in the oven for 45 minutes, turning the veggies over half way through.  

Next let's start your dough for the crust! Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in your COLD (ice cold, the colder the better, but not quite frozen) shortening and butter. By this I mean cut it into little pieces and drop it into your dry ingredients. Then, and I love this part, using your fingers or a pastry blender, or I guess if you're fancy a food processor, blend the cold fats into the dry goods until you get a tiny pea like consistency. Then add just enough of the ICE COLD water to get the dough to form a ball, you can use a fork for this as it will freeze your fingers off if it is the right kind of cold! Put the dough ball in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

At this point, you probably want to turn over your roasting veggies!

Time to hop on the gravy train! (I had to say it, sorry haha.) Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add in the onions you already cut and cook until translucent, probably about 5 minutes. Now add in the mustard and the thyme. Cook for a few more minutes before adding in your flour. Once you add the flour stir often to get rid of the flour flavor and achieve the thickening benefits. After the flour begins to turn brown and stick to the bottom of the pan, add in your wine and the vegetable broth. Simmer for 25 ish minutes until it reduces in volume by 1/4-1/3. 

Make sure you check the veggies and take them out if they are tender and well roasted. Transfer them to a 13x9 glass baking dish, or lasagna pan. Mush the roasted garlic out of the bulb and mix with the veggies.

When the gravy is done pour it over the vegetables in the dish.  

On a well floured surface, roll out your dough into the shape of the top of your baking pan and cut to fit. Place the dough on top of your vegetables and gently press the corners and edges down so the dough sticks but none of the filling comes out. Make 6-8 cuts with a sharp knife in the top of your dough. Combine the egg yolk and some cold water with a fork, brush over the crust to get that beautiful, yummy, color. 

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes until the crust is golden brown, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serves 8.

This will make TWO pot pies in a 13x9 pan. You can easily chop half the amount of veggies (they are sold in pounds) if you only want to make one. Or still chop and roast them all and serve the extras alone as a side dish!

What you get: 

A delicious, healthy and satisfying meal for your friends and family! All the vitamins and nutrients of root vegetables (see the roasted root vegetable post for more detailed info) and butternut squash! Butternut squash is one of the new super foods! It has TONS of antioxidants and fiber. It also has B vitamins, such as B6, that are so important for the nervous system and folate which is essential to women in pregnancy to help the baby's spinal cord develop correctly. One cup of butternut squash has almost half a day's worth of vitamin C and since it's orange, yes, like carrots, it has the nutrient beta-carotene, that our bodies use to make vitamin A!